An Open and Frank Discussion
by Adrian Tullberg
Summary: Communication is the bedrock of diplomacy. xover.


Wonder Woman tapped out a code and an authorisation number on her communicator.

_"Batman here."_

Diana checked her reflection, brushing the stray strands of hair back with her fingertips. "Bruce, do you remember that dimension I had to enter to take those calibrations?"

_"The favour you did for Steel?"_

"I was followed home by a group of superhumans." She walked past a furiously struggling hogtied blonde woman in a black unitard, gagged with her own sash. "They demanded that I immediately register with their home government along with all other active superhumans in their home dimension or be forcibly imprisoned in their version of the Phantom Zone without trial."

_"Do you need any help?"_

Diana sidestepped an unconscious man in a red and black ensemble and sunglasses, then a gibbering person in a yellow-and-blue costume, with a glowing 'S' in his mid-section; she made a mental note not to use the lasso on that one again.

"No, I've got it covered. Just letting you know."

The one in the green monster costume was still crushed under his flying platform, but still breathing.

_"There's something else...?"_

Diana leaned over and made sure the unconscious redhead with the guns was moved into a more comfortable position.

"There's a few things I have to sort out ... "

A man in Greek armour had his head imbedded in the floor, the mangled steel girder used to do the job shoved in on top of his head. Diana reflected that maybe she overreacted there, but that person, in any dimensional incarnation, really irritated her.

"... could you tape Gilmore Girls for me?"

On the desk, a metal coffee pot made by John Henry when he was bored and had some spare armour alloy, was rocking slightly due to multiple impacts from within. Muffled obscenities came from the sealed lid.

_"Will you ever learn to operate a VCR?"_

Diana checked the fusion reactor - the extra energy source she chucked in earlier was contained and remaining steady. The young man with the multiple wounds - all self inflicted thanks to that costume he wore (and people called her kinky?) was sleeping off the ketamine she grabbed in the medical lab.

"Just be grateful there's _one_ manly thing you can do for me."

The man who tried to puncture her eyeball with a toothpick was still groaning on the floor, both wrists fractured.

_"I never put 'pressing a record button' in the 'manly' category before."_

"They say you learn something new every day."

The man using the black viscous creature as a costume was still out cold, thanks to the woman in the red-and-white hair with the sonic blast that she had thrown him into. Of course, the man impacting into the woman wasn't conductive to her health.

_"Sure you don't need help?"_

The woman in the yellow uniform was still unconscious - relied too much on her powers.

"You've already got your manly quota to fill out."

The purple-suited man lay nearby, his sword now scattered in fragments. Generally speaking, anything bound in human skin didn't indear itself to Diana.

_"Remember, if there's an emergency ..."_

Diana walked over to the leader of this little group.

"There'll be an emergency if you miss a minute ..."

_"Fine, fine. Batman out."_

Deactivating the transmitter, Diana settled her star spangled derriere on the back of the man, who now wore, thanks to a sustained thrashing, a multi-billion dollar all-body straitjacket.

She picked up a piece of documentation she'd obtained from the earlier battle. "You realise ... Tony, was it?"

Tony nodded. There were places on his body that hurt now that he didn't realise could be hurt.

"... you are aware that sixty per cent of this Registration Act is amending other laws without clearly stating what the effect actually is? It's like it's going out of it's way to be willfully obtuse."

Tony tried to speak; a difficult action due to his face flat on the floor. "It's just simple streamlining of the legislative..."

Diana grabbed his ankle, and squeezed. A miracle in stress engineering bent around her manicured fingers like aluminum foil.

"Ahh! AHH! Okay! Legislation should clearly and succinctly declare in all areas what it can and cannot cover!"

Diana smiled down at the immobile man "We're making good progress Tony."

"… thanks ..."

"Now let's look at these clashes with the Constitution ..."


End file.
